Beheading Spurs Coalition Fight Against Islamic State

By Terry Atlas and Gregory Viscusi Photographer: JM Lopez/AFP via Getty Images

A Peshmerga fighter holds a rocket propelled-grenade near a flag of the Islamic State... Read More

U.S. allies signaled their readiness to step up the fight against Islamic State under a coalition formed by President Barack Obama as the beheading of a British aid worker sparked further outrage.
While no Arab nations have publicly committed to military action, several have told the U.S. privately they are willing to join in airstrikes in Iraq and in Syria, said a U.S. State Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to confront the militants with “iron determination.”
The U.S. intends to intensify airstrikes on the militants in coordination with the Iraqi government, according to a second State Department official who also
spoke anonymously under government rules. Obama is considering extending the attacks, now limited to Iraq, to Islamic State bases, leaders and supply lines in neighboring Syria.
“It is a global threat so we need a global response,” French President Francois Hollande said as he opened a conference in Paris bringing together the European and Middle Eastern wings of the developing anti-Islamic State coalition.
Hollande said the response involved military support to Iraqi and Kurdish forces, political support for the new Iraqi government, humanitarian aid for displaced people, and stepped-up efforts to prevent the flow of fighters and money to the Islamic State.
The Paris talks take on increased urgency after a third foreign hostage, David Haines, was beheaded in an effort to force the U.K -- a key member of the coalition -- to abandon the fight against Islamic State.

Hostage Threat

The group threatens to kill another British hostage, who was identified yesterday as aid worker Alan Henning. The father of two, from Greater Manchester, was kidnapped at the end of last year after entering Syria from Turkey, The Bolton News, a British newspaper, reported on its website.
Cameron said yesterday the U.K. will take “whatever steps are necessary” to confront the militants.
The 25-nation gathering in Paris is intended to coordinate aid to Iraq in the efforts against the Islamist militants. France invited foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, and China -- along with European and Arab nations involved in implementing Obama’s strategy to degrade and destroy the Islamic State group.

Battlefields, Mosques

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wasn’t represented at the talks, said the coalition’s efforts are “pointless,” “superficial,” and driven by “an agenda.” France had wanted to invite Iranian officials to the talks, but the move was vetoed by the U.S., according to a French official who asked not to be named in line with government policy.
The Paris meeting follows talks led by Obama with European nations at the NATO summit in Wales Sept. 4-5 and among Arab nations Sept. 11 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where they agreed in discussions with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to “do their share in the comprehensive fight” against Islamic State.
So far, the U.S. is the only foreign country carrying out airstrikes against the group in Iraq, and Obama has threatened to expand them to militant safe havens in Syria. During Hollande’s visit to Baghdad last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said he was told that France “will take part in striking terror locations.”

Actual Strikes

France today started reconnaissance flights from its airbase in Abu Dhabi, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian today told pilots at the base.
More than 40 nations have committed to military and non-military actions as part of the coalition, according to U.S. officials. “It’s not appropriate to start announcing, well, this country will do this and this country will do that,” Kerry said yesterday on CBS’ Face the Nation broadcast.
“I can tell you right here and now that we have countries in this region, countries outside of this region in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires,” Kerry said.
France has Dassault Aviation SA Rafale jets at a military base in the United Arab Emirates, and Britain has bases in Cyprus and the U.A.E.
Australia Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday his country would deploy 400 air force personnel and 200 special forces soldiers to a U.S. military base in the U.A.E. along with fighter jets, an early-warning-and-control aircraft and an aerial refueling aircraft.

Russia’s Objection

In addition to the military campaign, the Paris conference will also discuss how to sustain the political settlement under way in Baghdad, how to cut off the flow of foreign fighters and money to Islamic State, and will look at ways to fund the rebuilding of cities that have been caught in the fighting.
One source of tension may be Russia’s objection that the U.S. and Arab agenda also includes increasing efforts to defeat Moscow ally President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, where the three-year civil war has drawn jihadist fighters from around the world to the Islamic State group. Russia is also at loggerheads with the U.S. and Europe over its involvement in the pro-Kremlin uprising in eastern Ukraine.
Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are due to meet today at the conference, where they both will have the opportunity to speak.
The diplomatic action then moves to the United Nations, where Obama plans Sept. 24 to seek a Security Council resolution requiring governments to craft regulations and laws to thwart the flow of foreign fighters to militant groups such as the Islamic State.